For a moment, try to imagine two more crushing losses than the ones the Los Angeles Dodgers suffered in St. Louis this weekend.

Aside from an automatic tarp crushing Carl Crawford's leg in a freak pregame mishap, a worse-case scenario might not exist. And, it's not just about being down 2-0 in the NLCS, the result of getting shut out 1-0 on Saturday afternoon -- highlighted by a dominant ninth inning from Cardinals' closer Trevor Rosenthal, who threw all 14 of his pitches at least 97 mph in earning the emphatic save.

St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Michael Wacha (AP Photo)

No, this isn't about failing to steal the Cardinals' home-field advantage. That happens all the time. In a best-of-seven series, with the next three games at home, that's not really even that big of a deal. This is about getting nothing out of their two best players.

More specifically, it's about those two players -- starters Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke--performing exceptionally well and still having zero impact on the bottom line. This is about a squandered opportunity. The Dodgers couldn't have faced a better setup in this series against St. Louis; they had Greinke and Kershaw rested and ready to go for the first two games in hostile territory.

Because they were stretched to five games in their NLDS win against the Pirates, the Cardinals countered with 25-year-old Joe Kelly, who has yet to go a full season as a major-league starter, in the opener and 22-year-old Michael Wacha, who had made all of 11 starts in his big-league career, in Game 2.

Kershaw and Greinke, who are both in the prime of their careers, already have Cy Young awards under their belts, and Kershaw will win his second when the 2013 award is announced this November. At least one win in St. Louis seemed a certainty, and sweeping these two games at Busch Stadium was actually a pretty realistic scenario.

For their part, Greinke and Kershaw delivered. They combined for 14 innings, allowed just six hits, three runs (that's a 1.93 ERA), two walks and struck out 15 Cardinals hitters.

But the Dodgers scored just two runs in the two games against St. Louis' youthful, powerful pitching, even though they had so many more opportunities. As a team, they left 11 runners on base in Friday's 13-inning game, and stranded six more Saturday.

So, the Dodgers are heading back to Los Angeles down 2-0 in the series. And that's not even the worst part of their sticky La Brea situation.

In Game 3, they have to face Adam Wainwright.

The Cardinals' right-handed ace made two starts in the NLDS against the Pirates; he went 16 innings, allowed 12 base-runners and two runs while striking out 15 Pittsburgh hitters. He's only pitching Game 3 because the Cardinals needed him to save their season in Game 5 of the NLDS. He'll oppose Hyun-Jin Ryu, the L.A. rookie lefty who managed to survive just three innings against Atlanta in the NLDS before he was lifted for a pinch-hitter.

Now, of course, as the past two games proved, a starting pitching edge doesn't guarantee anything. Ryu is very capable of bouncing back in his second career playoff start and pitching a gem. In fact, in his only outing against the Cardinals this year, he threw seven innings without allowing an earned run.

But, because they're already down 2-0, regardless what happens in Game 3, Dodgers manager Don Mattingly -- who has had a series full of second-guessed decisions -- faces another difficult choice. Does he bring Greinke back on three-days rest for Game 4, like he did with Kershaw in Game 4 of the NLDS, when the Dodgers led the Braves 2-1?

And if he does that, will he bring Kershaw back on three days rest in Game 5? He might not have much of a choice, because the other option is Ricky Nolasco, who was awful in his final three regular-season starts, hasn't started since September 25 and was bypassed in the NLDS. If Mattingly goes with his dual aces on short rest, he's knowingly deploying his best two pitchers in less-than-optimal conditions.

This wasn't in the script they wrote before the series started. This looks more like the rush-hour traffic report on the 405.